2/9/2005 9:17:10 AM
From the AP:
Female teacher charged with sex offenses against 13-year-old
February 8, 2005
McMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- A Warren County elementary teacher has been charged with having a consensual sexual relationship with one of her students, a 13-year-old boy.
Pamela Rogers Turner, 27, was charged Monday with 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 13 counts of statutory rape. All the charges involved the same boy.
She is free on $50,000 bond. Turner has been placed on leave, school system director of instruction Bobby Cox said.
A telephone message left at the home of her father, Lamar Rogers, a coach at Clarkrange High School, was not immediately returned Tuesday evening.
Turner teaches physical education and coached girls basketball at Centertown Elementary, a Warren County school with grades kindergarten through eight in McMinnville.
District Attorney General Dale Potter said investigators believe some of the offenses happened at the school and some at the boy's home. Others may have transpired during out-of-town games in other counties, and there could be charges in the other counties from the alleged incidents, he said.
Turner lived at the boy's house "for a brief period of time when she was moving from residence to residence," Potter said Tuesday. The boy's parents knew she was living there but didn't know anything about a sexual relationship, he said.
Potter declined comment on the nature of the relationship between Turner and her student, but said investigators discovered multiple acts of sexual intercourse between November and January.
"It's attracting attention because it's a female teacher, and that's a little out of the ordinary," Potter said. "But for us, a sex abuse case is a sex abuse case."
Turner is in the process of divorce from Chris Turner, who is the head boys basketball coach at Warren County High School, the Southern Standard newspaper in McMinnville reported Tuesday. They were married in July 2003, and Chris Turner filed for divorce Jan. 14, citing inappropriate marital conduct by Pamela Turner.
Turner was arrested Monday in Clarkrange, her hometown in Fentress County about 55 miles northeast of McMinnville, Potter said.
Conviction on all counts could be punished by up to 100 years in prison. Potter said it was more likely that a conviction would mean a minimum of a year to several years in prison.
Arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 23.
Turner was praised by people throughout the community Tuesday and portrayed as a supportive teacher and basketball coach.
"She coached my granddaughter and she just cried when she saw the news on TV," said Christine Medley, who works at a local diner. "I've always thought of her as a nice lady."
Pamela Turner's father has won more than 800 games and seven state championships. Turner was a senior on his 1995 state title team.
Turner is a graduate of Tennessee Tech University with a degree in education.
She was named "Ms. Monday Nitro" during broadcasts by World Championship Wrestling from spring break in Florida in 1997.